Romney made his ’47 percent’ remark in Boca Raton; he’s coming back to Palm Beach County on Thursday

Mitt Romney‘s remarks that nearly half of Americans are “dependent upon government” and will vote for President Obama “no matter what” were uttered in May at the Boca Raton home of private equity mogul Marc Leder, Mother Jones magazine reported Monday night.

A tape of Romney’s private speech to top-dollar contributors caused an instant uproar when it was released by Mother Jones today, but the liberal magazine initially said it could not reveal the time and place of the remarks.

Late this evening, author David Corn identified them as coming during Romney’s May 17 visit to Leder’s home, where donors paid $50,000 apiece to dine with Romney.

Romney had been criticized for telling a CNN interviewer that “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it I’m concerned about the very heart of the America, the 90, 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling and I’ll continue to take that message across the nation.”

Romney took considerable heat for those remarks and said he had meant them to emphasize his concern for the middle class. Shortly before heading to Leder’s house, Romney tried to make that point again.

“I want to make sure America remains strong, that we help the people who need the help the most, which are middle class families,” Romney told the presumably well-off donors at Woodfield.

“You guys are doing great. I’m not worried about you. You’re doing just fine. I’m worried about the great majority of middle class families that are really struggling. I want them to get great jobs with rising incomes,” Romney said.